Navigating Around the Perfect Storm in Drilling Operations. Part 1.

What does the “Big Crew Change” mean for you?

You’ve probably heard all about the “Big Crew Change.” During the next few years, about one third of today’s oil and gas professionals are going to retire. For an executive manager of an oil and gas company, that presents a huge challenge – as companies everywhere race to fill the gaps in their workforces.
What does the Big Crew Change mean for you? Opportunity!

Methanex announced as newest member of the PetroSkills Alliance

KATY, Texas, USA (19 April, 2013) — As the PetroSkills Alliance continues to grow and diversify, we are pleased to welcome Methanex as the latest company to join the PetroSkills Alliance. The largest supplier of methanol in the world, Methanex brings a wealth of petrochemical experience and expertise to the PetroSkills value chain portfolio.

Using Course Progression Maps

PetroSkills Course Progression Maps are a valuable tool to help you customize a career map with coursework that specifically relates to present or future job requirements, or simply find your next course.

Investing in People: How to Quantify the Value of Competency Development

For all the emphasis placed on competency development, training budgets are almost always the first cut during any kind of down turn. For competency management to become more than a Human Resource Management fad it will have to demonstrate quantified financial return. This abstract outlines one approach to quantify the return on competency development investments.

For 3D concepts, 3D graphics work better than words

In the Geoscience disciplines (geology and geophysics), I have found that most course participants relate particularly well to graphic images. They are strongly visual learners. With fewer words and more images, they see more.
For this reason, I have designed my courses to be as visual as possible. And in recent years I have carried this further to include a large number of graphic animations in my courses.

How to Build Competent People – Fast

The Big Crew Change is no longer just a prediction of a looming exodus of experience. It’s happening. And while the industry is losing experience, it is gaining talent and energy from all the younger professionals. In five years, or maybe less, the industry will have ‘flipped’ from one full of ‘old guys’, to a completely different demographic of mostly younger professionals. It’s time to be sure that we hand over the know-how to this, the world’s biggest industry, to these young professionals – and let them carry it forward. We don’t have much time.

Learn more. Go farther.

The years just ahead offer terrific opportunity for petroleum professionals in the early stages of their careers. With the Big Crew Change upon us, thousands of senior-level professionals will soon retire. Early- and mid-career professionals will rise to fill their ranks – and the greatest gains will go to those with the greatest talent and drive to seize the opportunity.
One of the most important steps you can take to propel your career is to improve your technical knowledge and skills, and broaden your perspective.
But it’s not just about “taking courses.” I can tell you, based on my diverse and exciting experiences over a long career, that the courses you choose – and the organization that provides them – make all the difference.

The Difference Between “Good” and “Bad” Teachers

What’s the difference between a “good” teacher and a “bad” teacher, between a great learning experience and a bore? Intuitively, we all know the difference. Bad teachers are dull and uninspiring. Their lectures drone on and on, and before long it’s a struggle just to stay awake. I had an English professor once who so inspired me that I spent time in the library expanding my knowledge of the literature we were discussing. Making an “A” in his class was easy.